So it seems those with debt are making it a priority to reduce it rather than paying the minimum repayments on the loan and putting the rest in PMs. After paying off debt do other luxuries, hobbies etc come before PMs? Or does your spare cash go to PMs then what's left over goes to other interests etc. Of course taking into account grocery shopping, fuel etc.
Exactly RM. Even during the 2000-2010 decade when gold (and silver) more than quadrupled in fiat terms, you could easily have lost large portions of your $$ if you bought shares in crappy companies. Just look at how well superannuation has done since 2007... :| Shares and physical PMs are not the same thing at all. Even if you only bought silver, dollar/cost averaging should have you much closer to the $125K you started with, taking into account the spike to the $40's and back to current prices. I'd say the problem isn't PMs or the shares... but your investment strategy. It's not meant to be easy.
I been in shares since 09 but didnt start buying Silver and gold until...... Yep you guessed it April 2011 Buy high sell low!! Or am i doing it backwards? lol
It makes sense to pay down debt. IMO this idea of 'my debt is inflated away!' is nonsense. For me, spare cash goes into PMs depending on what the market is doing at the time. If there's bargains to be had, more cash goes in, if there's slim pickings then i'm more reserved. It's good to be a buyer at the moment, but I don't think that will last for long.
They say you need to suffer some losses,before you become a succsessful trader. So your absolutely right in saying its my investment strategy. Im from the school of hard knocks so to speak,and im used to learning the hard way. Cheers X
So it seems those with debt are making it a priority to reduce it rather than paying the minimum repayments on the loan and putting the rest in PMs. Debt repayments are priority not stacking. Makes sense. After paying off debt do other luxuries, hobbies etc come before PMs? Or does your spare cash go to PMs then what's left over goes to other interests etc. Of course taking into account grocery shopping, fuel etc. I guess I'm a bit of this and a bit of that. One week PMs get the cash other week its something fun etc. No hard plan. Free to do as I wish.
You can break the cycle... if you bought high, just don't sell low From my own personal experience trading shares, I learned a lot more about my own personal motivations and emotions (greed, fear, optimism, risk tolerance, etc) than I did about any one company. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that I don't need to take advantage of every potential gain, as there will be others. When you can see a market go wild, yet sit back and just watch it rather than to go 'all in', it's a good feeling. Particularly when the euphoria wears off and the capital gains go negative. Besides, if you take the longer-term view of PMs, current prices don't matter so much. It's only if you're forced to trade that it starts to matter.
Thx Dogmatix, My Stash of PMs is very long term as i intend to use it as a super fund. Being selfemployed,i do not pay super as such but i buy PMs. As far as the shares go, your simple solution of "dont sell low" is a gem! ;-) cheers
The hardest part of purchasing while in debt is getting it from the mail man to the house past the missus. Got to treat it like their wardrobe "what this old thing?"
I get paid weekly and every week i pay x amount on all my loads/credit cards. Im currently snowballing my 3 debts, so i pay the minimum on the 2 biggest and as much as practical on the smallest loan. once thats paid off, i go to the next biggest loan with the minimum repayment PLUS how much i paid on the loan i had just paid off. i also try to buy an ounce or silver and/or a gram of gold- usually unallocated from goldstackers.com- every week. i try to see it in 3 tiers, pay debts first and foremost, then a little bit for investment/nest egging and then whats left (and usualy by now its very little ) is the amount i have for luxury. if i have a spare $30, i would rather go buy an ounce of silver than a 6 pack of beer. that said, it depends what frame of mind im in after making my first purchase a half kilo bar at $49 an ounce in early april 2011, i now know that every ounce i buy i will be sitting on for a good few months to years. i know i wont be selling it in a few weeks for a profit of $50 or so. ive somewhat seperated my stack into 2 parts- the long term stuff- which consists of everything i impulsivley brought off ebay for more than $35 an ounce around march/april/may 2011- and the short term stuff- the stuff i have brought post easter disaster and will be trading here and there. basically long term and short term stuff. good thread. a lot of insight here.
Phillis, im in a similar situation regarding buying silver during the spike of 12 months ago. I also have trading and investing silver. I have around 800ozs that is my super fund, and i keep a few Pamp 1kg bars on hand to trade. Good luck with it!
I'm broke and find it hard to keep my stack, let alone add to it. What a ridiculous thread. It's depressing. I should keep that view to myself, but the no censorship forum is giving me some bad habits. There's no decorum over there at all. But yes a dumb question. I'm not scrolling to see who asked it, so its nothing personal. This is the kind of topic you raise when you really wish you could discuss aliens landing in Zion and making Ron Paul world president, in the defunct general discussion
Yes, debt is first, especially credit card debt. After the debt repayments, shopping, utilities, fuel and child care costs there is very little disposible income left. The house also needs updating and renovating, although not urgently, these things are costly and need to be saved up for. Hobbies although fun are generally a long term money pit. Many a time i have seen people lose $000s getting in and out of "hobbies" ie cars, bikes, AV equipment, gym equipment, comics etc My favourite past time of collecting first edition books and vintage posters is at a complete standstill and will remain so for the foreseeable future. At least these have held their value even in the current economic climate. PMs get added to the stack gradually when some spare cash comes in - tax returns, extra work income, when i sell stuff i don't need. Just wait till you have a mortgage and kids!
I don't buy silver regularly. I pay down debt as much as possible but keep a certain amount of cash ready to pounce on whatever opportunity might come up. I went into silver and then got out with a good profit. If I find the right property deal I'll go for that instead. I don't feel that I have to buy silver. I'm about to pile into silver in my SMSF but this time it will be longer term/ less speculative. C
Yeah, I've got a core position of gold. I wouldn't be without it but I'm not that keen to add to it. Will probably get some in the SMSF but again just a core position, if I'm going to keep adding PM's it will be silver. Then again I've just found a cracker development block going cheap. Not sure if it can be done in the SMSF but I'm certainly going to look into it. I get more excited over these things than the shiney stuff! C
